Dvd
Control
The film takes us from Curtis' schooldays in Macclesfield in 1973 where the shy Bowie fan daydreamed in class and married his best friend’s girl Deborah (Samantha Morton), up to his suicide on the eve of Joy Division's first American tour. Based on the memoirs of Deborah Curtis, the film focuses on Joy Division’s mounting success and the chaos of Curtis' personal life.
Starring Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, Toby Kebbell, Craig Parkinson, James Anthony Pearson
Directed by Anton Corbijn (feature debut, music videos for U2, Depeche Mode, ex-photographer for NME music magazine)
Written by Matt Greenhalgh (based on the book 'Touching from a Distance' by Deborah Curtis)
Festivals & Awards Cannes (Directors’ Fortnight) 2007
True Story, Music, Drama, Biography, Adaptation | 1hr 59mins | Rated (R16) | Violence, Offensive Language, Sex Scenes & Content That May Disturb | Origin: United Kingdom | Official Site »
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Flicks review
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5
Any music fan worth their salt will have a fleeting appreciation for Joy Division, a band so miserable that the premature deaths of many sad souls can surely be held responsible to it. Fronted by Ian Curtis, whose oppressive outlook on life was bleak to say the least, Joy Division performed a certain sort of music that was intense in its darkness; relishing an overwhelming sense of misery. The appeal lay in the sparse instrumentation, the punk attitude combined with an English ordinariness. Joy Division had a sharp, snappy way of saying “We’re all f*cked.”
Who better to make a biopic on than Ian Curtis - one of those figures who, to coin a clichéd phrase, lived fast and died young. Control follows Curtis’ (Sam Riley) life from his final year at school in the boring Northern town of Macclesfield, hooking up with his best friend’s girlfriend Deborah (Samantha Morton), getting married almost immediately and joining the band that would only become huge years after his death. As the band begins to consume him, he loses interest in his dull day job at the employment office and also in his wife. Plagued by an increasing amount of epileptic fits, Curtis tries to balance his love between two women, a baby, and his fans. He fails and takes his own life on the eve of his break-through American tour, at the age of 23.
Director Anton Corbijn, who knew the band as a photographer for NME magazine, recreates the imagery of the period through stunning black and white cinematography, feeling that this was the best way to portray a band that rarely, if ever, was photographed in colour. The result is one of the most beautiful films of the year. Every shot is perfectly framed and immaculately presented, capturing an overcast English gloom that was such an influence on the band.
The performances are excellent, particularly Sam Riley’s turn as Curtis. He performs the songs himself, capturing both Curtis’ monotonous drone and his unusual style of dancing – like a tortured spider, reminiscent of the epilepsy which haunted him. Samantha Morton is suitably dowdy next to Curtis’ foreign mistress Annik (Alexandra Maria Lara). The other usual suspects – Tony Wilson, Bernard Sumner, etc – are all brought to life accurately, and Toby Kebbell is hilarious as their manger Rob Gretton.
Unexpectedly, the screenplay is very funny (Well, practically everyone is a joker next to Ian Curtis). The black humour gives the film a much needed balance. Whether it be bassist Peter Hook mocking the name of fellow band The Buzzcocks, or Tony Wilson signing a contract with his own blood, there’s always a laff to be 'ad.
But it has always been Joy Division, not its frontman, that achieved cult status. Certainly, it might have been appropriate to see more of the music-making process. The band, in a way, represented Curtis’ legacy. That was where his talent and influence lay. As an individual, he was nothing. But this, of course, is entirely the point. Control merges the man’s story with his music to create an extraordinary cinematic rendering of despair.
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The people's reviews
3 reviews
Press Reviews
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BBC
4
It's rare that a biopic really gets into the head of its subject: real-life characters can be hard to penetrate, and many screenplays play it safe. Not Control. Curtis' wife co-produced the film - based on her own book - and helps provide a fascinating, intimate insight into the mind of her husband...
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Empire Magazine [UK]
4
A film about creative and emotional burn-out that says more about the fragility of the soul than any montage of ticket sales and ‘sold out’ signs could ever muster...
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Premiere Magazine [USA]
4
It's also that he's really, honest-to-God, got one of those movie faces that doesn't even come along once every generation. It's astonishing...
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Rolling Stone [USA]
It's Corbijn, shooting with a poet's eye in a harshly stunning black-and-white, who cuts to the soul of Ian's life and music. You don't watch this movie, you live it...
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The Christchurch Press [Margaret Agnew]
4
1/2 Playing the complicated chanteur, relative unknown Sam Riley is a revelation, eliciting both sympathy and anger from the audience, while the collie-mix who plays the family dog was a deserving nominee at last month's Fido Awards (losing out to The Queen's corgis). However, it's Samantha Morton (River Queen) who deserves the lion's share of the acting plaudits...
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The Dominion Post [Graeme Tuckett]
4
The pin-sharp black and white photography, the stunning sound track – with Bowie's Aladdin Sane front and centre, the witty and down-beat script, even the funereal march through the last twenty minutes of this film: it all conspires to make Control a small but achingly well formed highlight of the year...
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Variety [USA]
Somber, sad and compelling, Ian Curtis biopic "Control," about the lead singer of the '80s post-punk Blighty band Joy Division, is a riveting, visually arresting portrait of a tormented soul. Sam Riley gives a winning perf in the central role and is surrounded by a strong ensemble of thesps. First feature helming bow by photographer Anton Corbijn manages to present working-class Northern England in a wide range of appealing grays that make the description "black-and-white film" inadequate...
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